I know for many, you could care less about this issue, but for me and my elderly mum, this is a catastrophe! I live in a rural area with little mobile coverage, and frequent power cuts. In an emergency, I still have access to an old fashioned landline (yes, my cordless phone doesn't work with no electric, but my even older fashioned corded phone does)

My elderly 84 year old mum uses her corded landline daily just to keep in touch, especially now recovering from a stroke so it is critical.

How on earth can BT call this 'an improvement in service', when it is so obviously a detrimental backwards step?? My anger on this issue which has a timescale of just 3 years, is indescribable...

12 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I know for many, you could care less about this issue, but for me and my elderly mum, this is a catastrophe! I live in a rural area with little mobile coverage, and frequent power cuts. In an emergency, I still have access to an old fashioned landline (yes, my cordless phone doesn't work with no electric, but my even older fashioned corded phone does)

My elderly 84 year old mum uses her corded landline daily just to keep in touch, especially now recovering from a stroke so it is critical.

How on earth can BT call this 'an improvement in service', when it is so obviously a detrimental backwards step?? My anger on this issue which has a timescale of just 3 years, is indescribable...

Yeah,I knew about this months ago.Judging by the push back I sense a protest on some way👍

The line will be upgraded to the new system, and battery backups supplied for vulnerable customers in case of power outages, if you only have a landline that will be among the last to be swapped over.

Dont get angry, look into it more, speak to BT and get ready in time for what is going to happen.

Just now, MarksST said:

The line will be upgraded to the new system, and battery backups supplied for vulnerable customers in case of power outages, if you only have a landslide that will be among the last to be swapped over.

Dont get angry, look into it more, speak to BT and get ready in time for what is going to happen.

You seem to know a bit about this - will the new digital service still maintain your 'old' number? Interesting about the  battery power backup, I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere in the googling I have done...

5 minutes ago, MarksST said:

The line will be upgraded to the new system, and battery backups supplied for vulnerable customers in case of power outages, if you only have a landslide that will be among the last to be swapped over.

Dont get angry, look into it more, speak to BT and get ready in time for what is going to happen.

It’s not an upgrade for the elderly that are happy with the status-quo.

Where I live I can't get fibre optic cable, so have a slow broadband on the bt line, will I lose my Internet access?

12 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

You seem to know a bit about this - will the new digital service still maintain your 'old' number? Interesting about the  battery power backup, I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere in the googling I have done...

Yes you will keep the old number, the BT phone network is already fully digital from the exchange, they just route the number as VoIP to your router  instead of to the local exchange analog network. It theoretically allows you to take the same number with you across the country.

You can read about the battery backups here:

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/what-equipment-will-i-get-with-fibre-to-the-home-or-fibre-home-p

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/fibre-home-phone-service--questions-about-the-battery-back-up-un

The termination of the analog network and going fibre only is the best thing to happen to the BT network in half a century. BT need to do a better job at publicising the benefits (much less down time and faults) and reassuring those who only want a "landline" that once the equipment is installed, it will be no different to use, just more reliable.

And @MarkRS9 they will not turn off the copper network until fibre is available in your area. It's being done in staged rollouts as areas are upgraded.

It’s just from what I’ve read, the battery was mentioned by a BT spokesperson in a newspaper article, may need to inform BT that your mum is in a vulnerable group.

keeping the number depends on what the service provider is able to do, if with BT it would probably stay the same.

 

10 minutes ago, williamweb said:

It’s not an upgrade for the elderly that are happy with the status-quo.

It’s getting upgraded whether you like it or not, or if you think you’ll benefit from it or not.

I have a landline but its just there for emergencies, think about it .......... if you dial 999 on a mobile and collapse partwat through, nobody knows where you are. If you do the same on a landline they know where you are as sometimes you can hear the system in the background listing your adress and therefore where to send the emergency services if you collapse mid call. I have always maintained a landline for this reason.

4 minutes ago, JImpster said:

I have a landline but its just there for emergencies, think about it .......... if you dial 999 on a mobile and collapse partwat through, nobody knows where you are. If you do the same on a landline they know where you are as sometimes you can hear the system in the background listing your adress and therefore where to send the emergency services if you collapse mid call. I have always maintained a landline for this reason.

If you dial 999 on a mobile, they do have a rough location too. It can be triangulated based on the cell towers.

A lot of modern mobile phones will also send their exact location as part of the call.

2 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

If you dial 999 on a mobile, they do have a rough location too. It can be triangulated based on the cell towers.

I was at mums house when she had her stroke, ironically, EE doesn't give good coverage there either so I used her landline to dial 999, the emergency operator was able to confirm with me her exact address from her landline...

Just now, StephenFord said:

I was at mums house when she had her stroke, ironically, EE doesn't give good coverage there either so I used her landline to dial 999, the emergency operator was able to confirm with me her exact address from her landline...

They will still be able to do that with fibre and VoIP, if the number is registered to that address.

3 minutes ago, MarksST said:

It’s getting upgraded whether you like it or not, or if you think you’ll benefit from it or not.

It’s a downgrade for the elderly that don’t understand ha ha.

16 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

You can read about the battery backups here:

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/what-equipment-will-i-get-with-fibre-to-the-home-or-fibre-home-p

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/fibre-home-phone-service--questions-about-the-battery-back-up-un

 

"This means you will still be able to make and receive calls for up to an hour... "That's almost useless, the last powercut I had last weekend was 6 hours!!

5 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

"This means you will still be able to make and receive calls for up to an hour... "That's almost useless, the last powercut I had last weekend was 6 hours!!

If you don't have a mobile phone and are concerned enough then you could get your own UPS. I have a UPS which powers my network in a power failure.

There will always be times it can't be used though, nothing is 100%. There is always a risk with analog landlines that there could be a fault on the line and it's dead the time you need to use it in an emergency. The fibre network will be much less likely to suffer outages as a result of aging cables or interference. Swings and roundabouts.

2 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

If you don't have a mobile phone and are concerned enough then you could get your own UPS. I have a UPS which powers my network in a power failure.

There will always be times it can't be used though, nothing is 100%. There is always a risk with analog landlines that there could be a fault on the line and it's dead the time you need to use it in an emergency. The fibre network will be much less likely to suffer outages as a result of aging cables or interference. Swings and roundabouts.

Surely it could be technically possible to be given the choice.

1 minute ago, alexp999 said:

If you don't have a mobile phone and are concerned enough then you could get your own UPS. I have a UPS which powers my network in a power failure.

There will always be times it can't be used though, nothing is 100%. There is always a risk with analog landlines that there could be a fault on the line and it's dead the time you need to use it in an emergency. The fibre network will be much less likely to suffer outages as a result of aging cables or interference. Swings and roundabouts.

In 40 years of owning an analogue landline, I have never had a single outage. My mobile phone ONLY works when I have electric as it gets it signal from my router, which is powered by electric.  Last weekends power cut I was kept updated on it by being able to dial the power company on my corded landline, and also still having the ability to phone mum - without that, I'd be f*cked, as will many other people who will be supposedly 'upgraded'!

Just now, williamweb said:

Surely it could be technically possible to be given the choice.

You mean keeping the old analog lines?

It costs a fortune to maintain them, it wouldn't be financially viable to keep both networks going.

1 minute ago, alexp999 said:

You mean keeping the old analog lines?

It costs a fortune to maintain them, it wouldn't be financially viable to keep both networks going.

And when the demand for Analog fades out,turn it off

1 minute ago, StephenFord said:

In 40 years of owning an analogue landline, I have never had a single outage. My mobile phone ONLY works when I have electric as it gets it signal from my router, which is powered by electric.  Last weekends power cut I was kept updated on it by being able to dial the power company on my corded landline, and also still having the ability to phone mum - without that, I'd be f*cked, as will many other people who will be supposedly 'upgraded'!

That's really fortunate on the outages. I've had more hours without a working line than without power, due to failing copper connections.

When making an emergency call your mobile will dial out on any available network, not just the one you are with.

Like I say there is always the option of having your own UPS. You could spec it to last days if you wanted.

5 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

That's almost useless, the last powercut I had last weekend was 6 hours!!

Sounds like the electric company need to upgrade their infrastructure in your area rather than BT...

My Nan also keeps a landline phone for use during powercuts.  However that's only any use if her power-riser chair battery isn't flat.  I'm amazed it just uses standard single use batteries, rather than keeping them charged from the mains while plugged in!

 

1 minute ago, StephenFord said:

In 40 years of owning an analogue landline, I have never had a single outage. 

You're pretty lucky with that.  We lost phone lines regularly out in the stix.  Either trees would fall on overhead lines, or farmers would dig up underground lines. 

2 minutes ago, williamweb said:

And when the demand for Analog fades out,turn it off

Demand for analog already has. Most people don't want it.

The cost that would need to be attached to having an anlog line would be astronomical, with the few people using it. Far cheaper for vulnerable to be on a fibre based connection.

Just now, TomsFocus said:

Sounds like the electric company need to upgrade their infrastructure in your area rather than BT...

 

Ironically, 4 weeks ago we had a planned outage of 8 hours so that NIE could upgrade the local infrastructure, so far, I'm not impressed!

9 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

Demand for analog already has. Most people don't want it.

The cost that would need to be attached to having an anlog line would be astronomical. Far cheaper for vulnerable to be on a fibre based connection.

At the moment BT won’t let us have fibre.Because we live close to an exchange.They are saying our analog signal is good enough.I confess I don’t understand it but I think that’s what was said.I might be wrong though.